Once the den was cleaned and everyone had left, Brogan quickly changed his mind about that. As soon as the door closed, Brogan threw Cade a look he couldn’t decipher, before speaking, “Your friends are so easy; all I had to do was laugh and give them a fake smile and they were eating out of my hands. Elias even gave me his number - as though I’d be friends with an Omega.”
“You’re an Omega,” Cade reminded him angrily.
“Not a real one. I am really an Alpha locked in this body you trapped me in. Look I get it your Alpha needs me here, but we can survive this if you let me go to live with my dad.”
“I don’t understand you,” Cade snapped. “You know how he treated your mom, that he drove her to take her own life, yet you would rather be with someone like that than me. Why would you subject yourself to that?”
“My mom was born an Omega and that made her weak, but I wasn’t. I was born a fucking Alpha and unlike you my father would treat me as one and not the little bitch you want me to be.”
“No Brogan, he won’t. He’ll use you and degrade you. If you had been born an Omega, then he would have taken everything you had from you and sold you to the first Alpha that came along with the biggest bank account to get more.”
“How are you any different?” Cade sneered before pleading, “Let me go.”
“I don’t need your money. Just because I live like it doesn’t mean that my family is poor; I lived like a starving student because I am. I haven’t earned the money my father has and I want to make it on my own merits, not daddy’s money.” For now, Cade decided to be quiet about the huge sum that he inherited from his grandparents because of them mating. “As far as letting you go live with your father I can’t do that Brogan. We have to make this work.”
“This is the last time I’ll ask you this, let me go to my father, Cade.”
“I can’t do that,” Cade shook his head.
“Okay, just know this, I don’t know when or how, but I will make you regret this.”
“Brogan,” Cade said softly as he reached out to his mate.
Jerking away, Brogan spat, “Don’t you dare touch me,” before running to his room and slamming the door.
For a moment Cade was once again thinking of giving Brogan the space he needed, but so far that hasn’t worked. Pursing his lips together, Cade thought that if he gave Brogan what he asked - not demanded - then some to the tensions between them would have eased as little.
Besides he remembered what Amanda had told him that touch was the way for them to forge a bond and bring Brogan out of his Alpha mindset.
Stomping up the stairs behind Brogan, Cade didn’t knock, he just pushed the door open and gave Brogan an ultimatum, “Tonight Brogan, I’ll give you tonight, but beginning tomorrow we will begin our touch therapy whether you want to or not.”
“Oh, so you’re going to rape me again,” Brogan mocked him.
Walking up to Brogan, Cade pulled himself up to his full height, “Let me ask you this Brogan, had you come out on top, so to speak, would you still be calling what happened between us rape?” When Brogan didn’t respond, Cade continued, “I thought so. As I told you before touch doesn’t necessarily mean sex, right now we’re just bonding, touching and cuddling skin to skin, but I will promise you that the next time you and I have sex it will be because you ask for it.”
“I would never beg you,” Brogan denied.
“Oh, you will Brogan, you will,” Cade promised. “You’ll go ass up with so much slick it’ll be running down your thighs. That pretty little Omega dick will be hard, but you won’t care, all you’ll want is for me to fill you up. I might give in, but then I might just tease you and make you wait because of the way you made this hard for us.”
Cade smiled as he saw how pink Brogan’s face was at the thought of being fucked. That Alpha brain might be fighting their union, but the Omega body knew what it wanted. But Brogan would rather sever his vocal chords rather than admit that he wanted Cade.
That was okay because Brogan’s reaction gave him hope.
That hope lasted until the next day when Brogan attempted to lock himself in his bedroom and Cade had to get power tools to remove the handle from the door to gain entrance. Once he was inside the room, he was beyond angry, but when he smelled the lingering scent of the Beta with whom Brogan had shared this room.
As long as her scent as there, Cade knew that there would be no bonding with Brogan when he slept in a bed that still smelled like his former lover.
Backing out of the room Cade found Brogan’s cell and dialed her number, “Brogan,” she greeted on the first ring.
“No, this is his Alpha, Cade,” Cade told her. “While I’m at work tomorrow you need to come and get your things. You’ll have all day so make sure that everything that you want is gone by the time Brogan and I return at six.”
“That’s not enough time,” she complained.
“Maybe, maybe not but if you haven’t removed all of your things in the allotted time, then I will donate them to charity,” Cade warned her. He knew that he was being unreasonable, but he had to take his anger out on someone, and she was handy.
Chapter 10
Brogan was anxious when he woke the morning. Waking wasn’t quite the right word because he really hadn’t slept. After the confrontation with Cade before bed he fought the urge to walk down the hall and beg Cade for forgiveness.
Couple that with the fact that he was expected to go into the office today and face everyone was not conducive to a good night’s sleep.
That’s not the face he showed to Cade.
Thirty minutes after rolling out of bed, dressed in khakis that fit him a little tighter last week, thanks to some muscle mass loss, and a crisp white button down, Brogan walked into the kitchen to face Cade. The Alpha was at the counter making coffee. If he hadn’t noticed the slight stiffening of Cade’s body, Brogan would have thought that he hadn’t heard him walk in.
“Good morning,” Cade greeted him as he poured the amber liquid into the aluminum Yeti coffee cup, but Brogan didn’t return the greeting.
Somewhere around 4 A.M. Brogan decided that he would not lose his dignity and beg and plead to be allowed to stay at home. Begging to be sent to live with his father was all the begging that he was ever going to do, so instead of answering he walked past Cade to pour his own cup. When he placed the cup to his mouth. His stomach rolled violently.
He barely made it to the bathroom adjoined to the office before throwing up.
As he rested his head on the edge of the toilet seat, he tried to summon up hatred towards Cade as he pressed a cool cloth to the back of his neck, but it felt so good that he almost broke the promise he’d made of not begging.
Cade took Brogan’s hand and led him into the office and sat on the sofa and Brogan couldn’t have been more thankful. As he fell onto the oversized sofa, Brogan closed his eyes wanting nothing more than to get back into his sleep pants and crawl back into the bed and sleep until the middle of next week.
“Hey, are you okay?” Cade asked as he brushed the damp hair from Brogan’s forehead. “You still look a little green.”
Oh fuck, Brogan thought, Cade’s hands threading through his hair felt good, so good that for a small moment he let go of the fight and let himself enjoy the ministrations.
“Yeah, I’m good,” Brogan answered in a voice hoarse from retching. “But I am still a little sick to my stomach.”
“My sister used to swear by dry crackers and ginger ale when she was pregnant. Let me see what I can find,” Cade advised him as he moved towards the kitchen.
He bit the whine threatening to slip out at the loss of Cade’s hands as the Alpha moved towards the kitchen.
The crackers were left over from some get together Lara had had a couple of weeks ago that he had been angry about, but once he ate a couple and washed time down the sprite Cade found, he was grateful that she’d had her get together.
He lay there for a few minutes with Cade hovering nearby as
they waited for him to feel a little better. When Cade would have had him resting a little longer, Brogan decided he was better, so he went back to his room to change into a clean shirt while Cade was on the phone.
He was sure the Alpha was calling into the office telling them that his poor pathetic Omega was too pregnant to come to work, and he was not going to give them the satisfaction of not facing them again.
As he changed his shirt he thought about Cade on the phone, probably with Liam, some good would come out of the conversation; at least he wouldn’t have to stand in front of those bastards and suffer the indignity and announcing his pregnancy.
There would be jokes, he’s sure. Tate’s would be crass and Brody’s so deep that you didn’t get them until eight hours later, but there would be jokes but at least he wouldn’t be there to experience them.
Cade went all Alpha on him, so he had to convince himself that he felt better, it took a while, but soon they were in the car, ready to head to the office.
Once they were buckled in, the smell of the coffee made his stomach protest. He turned towards the aluminum cup Cade held in his hand and glared.
At first, he thought that Cade was going to ignore him, but at the end of their street, he stopped the car and gave a full body sigh before opening the door and poured the offending liquid out.
The way Cade stared at the cup on the rest of the drive gave Brogan a hint about how much Cade loved coffee and the thought of depriving the man of something he loved made Brogan smile.
That smile lasted until they reached the office and Brogan found that his nerves had him sweating a little. This time he was more nervous than he had been on the first visit. The last time he and Brogan came here it was with the intention of ending things with his business partners, but this was different.
He was walking into the building not knowing what was expected of him and what his duties were going to be. He was sure that by now everyone was aware that he was an Omega, but that didn’t mean that he was not going to have to deal with people who were happy to see karma bite him in the ass and would happily watch him crash and burn. They would especially love the fact that he was now following orders instead of giving them.
Other than Benji he wasn’t sure what the other Omegas did for them, because Benji did an excellent job of getting them coffee. So that bought into question what his job was going to be, because of the thought of doing nothing was going to drive him crazy in addition to sitting there with a group of mindless Omegas, and besides, right now coffee was making him sick.
Perhaps he wouldn’t have to deal with the Omegas at least not right away. Cade was new to their group, to his position and he would need Brogan to show him the ropes. What he remembered from that night was Danielle telling him that Cade had just graduated from college, so he has no real-world work experience.
A fresh new college graduate knew nothing about dealing with difficult ego driven clients, Brogan was going to have to help him get through these first few months, so Benji and the other Omegas could go to hell.
The closer that they got to Brogan’s - not Cade’s - Brogan’s office, Brogan began to walk a little taller and with more confidence like the Alpha he'd been born to be.
Once inside the office, Cade walked over to the windows and opened the blinds to let some sunlight in while Brogan sat behind the desk and turned on his computer.
As he went through the email, he didn’t hear any movement from Cade, so he looked up to see the man propped against the wall near the window with an amused look on his face.
“Enjoying yourself?” he asked around a soft smile that brought out the fine line around his eyes making Brogan’s heart beat a little faster.”
“Checking the calendar to see what I have scheduled for today,” Brogan said stating the obvious.
“My schedule,” Cade corrected him emphasizing the word my. “My schedule, my desk, my office. You have a cubicle with Benji and the other Omegas.”
“The hell I do,” Brogan snarled, “I worked hard to help build this company, not you, so I will not be pushed aside because I go into heat once a month!”
“You’ll do exactly that,” Cade told him. “You’ll complete whatever job you’ll be assigned and not make waves. With your knowledge we can make an argument to give Omegas better jobs including ones with power, but not if you approach things the way you are.”
“I wonder if Liam promised Benji the same thing before sticking him in a cubicle for the past ten years waiting for his prince charming to rescue him.”
“I don’t know Liam and Benji well enough to speculate about their relationship,” Cade told him, “but as an Alpha, I’m sure Liam would do his best to live up to any promise he made to his Omega, but it's also possible that Benji is satisfied with his job.”
Brogan couldn’t keep the surprise of Cade’s statement off his face. It never occurred to him that Benji could be happy where he was, but then he’d never given much thought to Benji’s work. If the other man had been a Beta, then he would have encouraged Liam to do more for his mate.
“He’s a goddamned Omega who gets coffee and copies all day, of course he’s fucking happy with his job!”
“As your Alpha I will make a promise to you, however,” Cade continued as though Brogan hadn’t spoken. “Despite what you think, I don’t want a simpering idiot as a mate any more than you want to be perceived as one. You put all your energy into trying to convince me that you’re smarter than an Omega, then prove it. Stop fighting your biology. Just because you’re an Omega doesn’t make you dumb so help prove the others wrong. Do the job assigned to you and learn it - no perfect it and show the world what an Omega can do instead of complaining.”
Brogan gave Cade a smirk at his little speech. What he supposed to give in because his tiny little Alpha had given him permission? What Napoleon didn’t know was that he would rather spend a night in that little room at the Omega Center than roll over ass up for Cade.
Cade and Amanda thought that they could trick him into finding his inner fucking Omega, but he would prove them both wrong and soon will be sent to his father’s.
“So, I’m supposed to help you further along in your career on my hard work?” Brogan asked as he raised his eyebrows. “I don’t think so. If you want it figure it out on your own.”
“You’re under the impression that I need your help, Brogan,” Cade shook his head, “but I don’t. If you had taken the time to get to know me then you’d know that I graduated high school early, at fifteen to be exact. Before I was twenty, I had my MBA and have worked in the advertising field for four years. I was so fucking good that Bill Lindsay himself head hunted me to head up his new sports division. The job was a shoe in, the interview a formality but you had to take that trip to the bank and ruin it for me.”
Brogan paled at Cade’s announcement. He had placed all his hopes on Cade needing him to navigate his way through this new environment, but the Alpha didn’t need him at all. The group of them had stumbled upon sports advertisement when a friend of theirs wanted to start an Ultimate Frisbee tournament and paid them with a keg for their trouble. Their work caught the eye of a retired tennis pro who wanted to set up a clinic for underprivileged youth and Sports Related Advertising was born.
They had all put in their blood sweat and tears to make the company what it is today, but if he was telling the truth, with his knowledge and expertise, Cade could help the company excel more than he ever thought.
“Work with me, Brogan, give us the chance you would have had you remained Alpha,” Cade’s soft voice pleaded, drawing him in to the point where he was going to say yes, but Benji saved him by choosing that moment to knock on the door and saved Brogan from his weakened state and stopped him from making a goddamned fool of himself.
“Fuck,” he heard Cade mutter telling Brogan that Cade knew that he was about to give in.
“Is Brogan ready to begin?” Benji asked Cade, as though Brogan was unable to answer for himself.
N
ot giving Cade time to answer, Brogan groused, “I guess that I’m banished to spend the day with the O’s while the big bad Alphas make all of the important decisions.”
He wanted to ask to be allowed to stay, but his pride wouldn’t let him, and even though he knew that Cade would let him stay, it would be akin to begging to service the clients that he helped bring in.
This group created logos and brands for many athletic clubs, charities and athletes and there was no way that little Cade could knot up and do what it took to get the big names to sign with them.
When LeBron was looking at a logo for his clothing line, Brogan let himself get embarrassed on the basketball court until he had the contract signed. He’s played tennis with both the Williams' sisters and lost badly on the greens to Rory McIlory, whose golf bag was bigger than Cade.
Perhaps he should have been quiet because now Cade was stone faced to Brogan’s sarcasm, so he turned and followed Benji out of the door.
From Alpha to Omega Page 9
